Ever since I got out of the hospital for this last flare-up, Ive been noticing that when I take deep breaths in, I can hear (and feel) a slight inspiratory wheeze or airy sound coming from somewhere in my throat. More bothersome than the sound, I can actually feel some resistance as well. It feels like I’m breathing through a narrowed tube.

At first I thought that because I was weaning off the pred too fast, that my airways were rebelling by tightening up, but this sensation feels different than regular bronchospasm. Although very mild, it feels more like a permanent constricture in, or around the area of my vocal cords.

Well , after a week of trying to rule out possible causes, it finally dawned on me….. I probably have some kind of Tracheal Stenosis” or a vocal cord injury, related to my last intubation. I spoke with Dr W and she totally agreed with my assessment. An ENT doctor will have to look down my throat with a scope to confirm whether this is actually the problem, but I’m pretty confident it is. My only question is, is it my vocal cords that are jacked up, or is there some narrowing of the upper airway itself, and more important, can it be fixed?

From what little I know about this subject from working as an RT, Tracheal Stenosis is basically a narrowing of the trachea , either above or below the glottis, and is usually due to trauma caused when an Endotracheal tube is inserted in your windpipe ( Intubation).Although modern ET tubes are designed to be gentle on the airways, the physical presence of the breathing tube in your airway, can still cause damage and scarring to the surrounding tissue. The result, is swelling and/or thickening of that portion of the airway. The amount of time that the ET tube is in your airway is an important factor, as you’re more likely to develop a stenosis if you were intubated for a long period. But, that’s not always the case, especially when you’ve been intubated as many times as I have.

Up till now, this has been little more than an annoyance ,which only bothers me when I try to take a deep breath in. I am a little concerned however, that this could turn into a very serious problem the next time I have a major flare, so I just as soon get it checked and corrected as soon as possible.

A Canadian style lunch, complements of my friend Kerri from Winnipeg. She knows I’m a candy-holic and that I like UFO stuff too ( my cat Winston is from another galaxy)

We enjoyed our lunch very much. Thanks Epic Kerri for sending us all these goodies!!

Whatever IT is, I must still have it, because today I walked 10 miles. And I couldn’t be happier about IT!

I think this tune kinda captures the mood for the day. I’m Alive (by ELO)

Now, I’m not going to say it was easy, cuz it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of the most difficult training walks Ive done in a long time. My lungs got tight right off that bat, and by the time I got to the 6 mile mark, I was hitting on my inhaler every 5 to 10 minutes (12 puffs in all). Did I mention that a bunch of thunderstorms erupted and it poured down freezing rain almost the entire 2 hours and 43 minutes that it took me to finish the walk? ( shame on you weather man) Yup, I was soaked to the bone and wheezing like a punctured set of bagpipes, but I pushed on, and man… did I feel alive!

The last 3 months have been really rocky. Two hospitalizations in a 12 week period and never fully recovering from either one, had me feeling pretty down and unsure if Id ever be able to any long distance walking again. Well with today’s uncertainty eliminated, Ive regained some of that confidence and am ready to tackle the other 300 miles that I’ll need to walk to be ready for Boston.

Note to myself: I will definitely need to take a couple neb treatments during Boston and also during my longer training walks, because the inhalers just don’t cut it when I’m over exerting myself.

It’s now or never –I’ve got some serious walking to do.

If all goes well, I’ll be kicking off my Boston marathon training this Saturday with a 10 mile bridge to bridge walk in San Francisco. For the next 12 weeks (lungs permitting), I will be walking my ass off, and in the process will rack up close to 300 miles. From this point on, I will need to focus a 100% of my attention on my training , so I’ll probably be blogging less frequently. I will however, post a weekly update of my progress.

I’ll be following the training template below. Because I’m already a month behind, I’ll be entering at the 3rd week of the schedule and finishing on the 16th. To cram this much this training into such a short period, will definitely be a challenge.

(click to enlarge)

As with previous training sessions, I’ll be doing most of my lsds (long slow distance) walks, in San Francisco along the waterfront and Golden Gate Bridge, and my shorter 3-5 mile tempo walks, in Crockett, California on the Al Zampa Bridge.

So you might be asking , why is all this training and preparation so important for someone who is only walking a marathon vs running one? Well, 26 miles…. is 26 miles, whether you run it, walk it, or crawl it. It’s not like you’re given a week to complete the race. If that were the case, anyone could do a marathon. I have 7 hours to cross the finish line at the Boston marathon, which equals a pace of about 16 min/mile. If you’re not quite sure how fast that this, just imagine walking at a brisk pace, non-stop, for 7 + hours. I assure you it’s not easy, even for people who prepare for it. The average body is not build to withstand the stress of trekking 42 thousand meters without a break. No matter how healthy you are, you need to train for these kinds of races.
Then there’s this little problem I have with my lungs. My lung function is less than 50% to begin with, and on top of that, I have very severe asthma. Put all these things together and you can see why training for a marathon is such a big deal for me.

Ive only been out of the hospital for 2 weeks now, and because my shortness of breath and exercise tolerance have worsened this past year, until I know how my body is going to react to some of these upcoming training walks, I can’t really say with certainty, if I’ll be up to the task of completing, what would be my 7th marathon and last marathon.

Preparing for an event like the Boston marathon also requires a huge commitment of time, money and sweat. For this reason, I’m not going to make a final decision about my participation in the race until Jan 30th. Here’s hoping for a green light.

I wasn’t going to post this, but I just couldn’t resist. Here’s the bill for my little New Years week stint at the local pokey.

For fun, I threw in one of the 12 pages of itemized charges to give you an idea how much individual things cost. Like for example, the Ventilator charge per day. Or how much the continuous nebulizer costs for the first hour, and then how much it costs for each additional HOUR. (Remember, I was on a continuous neb for 48+ hours!)

The cost of inpatient hospital care is just mind boggling.

Yes, I have medical insurance ( at least for now)

[Not lookin too bad for someone who was on a ventilator just 11 days earlier..eh?]

I’m not totally out of the woods yet and I don’t want to jinx myself, but for the first time in 2 weeks, I actually feel like a human being again. I can breath!
To celebrate, I went ahead and got the first of those 3 goodies that I promised myself…..namely, a haircut! (Yikes…I look a little too str8 now). The new shoes and the Manilow Paris Las Vegas show tickets are in the mail.

You know with all the suffering that’s been going on in the world lately, I feel extremely fortunate in so many ways. I may have really bad asthma, but I also have access to some of the best medical care on the planet. I’m surrounded by caring people, and blessed with the support of others who know what’s it like to live with a chronic disease. I would say I’m pretty lucky and have very little to complain about.

And in case you haven’t heard, SARP is now on Facebook. And thanks to Kerri’s efforts, there’s also a Fan page.